Is Sony punishing the fans for hating the TPM UE by not releasing the complete SW Prequel scores?

[BloodBoal 7,538]

[Unlucky Bastard 7,782]

Fragile little petals.

[BloodBoal 7,538]

[Jay 37,352]

I would say the reason Sony never made UEs of AOTC and ROTS is because the TPM OST sold multiple millions of copies and the TPM UE sold less than one million. They saw no financial reason to continue the line.

This is a major recording label, not our specialty label heroes who are fine with small profits.

[Gruesome Son of a Bitch 6,488]

The Ultimate version was released not long after the OST, around the point that the market had been completely saturated with Phantom Menace junk and prices were being slashed just to get rid of the shit. Maybe everyone was a little (or a lot) burnt out on Jar Jar and Jake Lloyd and the Ultimate soundtrack (which sort of came out of nowhere and I was unaware had even been released until I saw an ad for it in a Star Wars magazine) wasn't a big seller. 30 bucks for a glittery blue Darth Maul?

[#SnowyVernalSpringsEternal 10,265]

Another reason was that fot TPM large chunks of the score were ripped from video games etc to create bootlegs.

The TPM EU was partially created to make those worthless.

AOTC didnt have clean, unreleased music availeble like that. Not in the amounts of TPM.

[SafeUnderHill 205]

[Gruesome Son of a Bitch 6,488]

The Ultimate version has all the music heard in the film itself, but most of the music is exactly as presented in the film, meaning it has edits (some quite heinous) and music placed where Williams never intended it to be. The album claimed to have every note John Williams composed for the film, but that is a lie. It is basically an isolated score.

You're better off with fan reconstructions of the (I guess?) complete score, but owning the official releases so you don't feel like a total criminal.

[Jay 37,352]

Pretty much that, yep.

[Mattris 416]

People just listen to music on laptop speakers and dodgy earphones anyway. No need for a re-mix/remaster. And knowimg Sony Music, they just make everything louder in remasters.

Well, we know they've been extremely lazy in regards to releasing the OT scores over and over. But to produce AOTC and ROTS UE CDs, Sony would have to hire someone (most likely Shawn Murphy and his crew) to properly mix the scores from the original multi-channel analog master tapes. They would then create a new stereo master for the purpose of creating a CD or download release (or a 5.1 master for SACD / Blu-Ray audio release). This process was used to create the Episode 1 UE, which sounds fantastic - even though the sound was hard-limited a tiny bit.

It's pretty clear to me. The fact that Sony didn't produce AOTC and ROTS "Ultimate Editions" around the time that the DVDs of the films were released means that some of their executives had a grudge due to the backlash over TPM "Ultimate Edition". I see no other reason why they wouldn't have wanted to make more money by releasing the scores in more-complete form. With the experience from producing the TPM UE, putting together two more 2-CD sets would have been a relative walk in the park and certainly would have turned a healthy profit.

I'm still trying to imagine the conversation:

Producer A: Should we produce expanded releases of AOTC and ROTS?

Producer B: Well, they're sure to make lots of money.

Producer C: And with the experience we now have it's not much work.

Producer D: Hey guys, don't you remember? The Star Wars fans are ungrateful assholes.

Producer A: True. I still cry myself to sleep when I think of the comments they made about our great release.

Producer B: Yeah, they don't deserve expanded releases.

Producer C: Right. Screw the money.

Producer D: Right.

It's sad to think, but the conversation could have gone something like that.

In envisioning the Episode 1 UE, it's clear that Sony didn't understand what the fans wanted, so they decided to simply release the score as it appeared in the film. Problem is, they lied by marketing it as "every note John Williams composed for SW Ep.1 TPM". (Heck, that statement is on the back cover of the UE packaging. Liars!) It's perplexing to think that Sony hired someone to edit the score to mirror as it appeared in the film, instead of simply releasing the music "as John Williams intended it to be used" - without the jarring edits.

Who was the target audience for the TPM UE? Really, would the casual SW fans have complained (or even noticed) that the music wasn't edited exactly as it appeared in the film? The supremely edited "Battle of Naboo" might have been an exception, so to make everyone happy, the 'film version' could have been presented at the end of disc 2... instead of the music video version of "Duel of the Fates".

My point is that Sony could have turned a considerable profit by releasing AOTC and ROTS UEs around the time the movies' DVDs were released. Even if they had only sold a few hundred thousand copies each, that would have meant millions of dollars profit. I'm sure some obscure Sony Classical recording artists sell only only a few thousand albums worldwide, so it just doesn't add up. So if not producing the the other two UEs was simply a "business decision" by Sony and Lucasfilm, what could have been their reasoning?

[Koray Savas 2,251]

No one is looking at the big picture. John Williams is to blame!

[Mattris 416]

That's entirely possible. I'm sure he was none too pleased about how the TPM UE turned-out. Do you think he was told that the fans complained about the UE?

Come to think of it, why does the back of the UE say "album produced by John Williams"? Surely he didn't approve of the edits, much less pay for the project.

[#SnowyVernalSpringsEternal 10,265]

The credits were copied straight from the OST.

[A24 4,331]

That's entirely possible. I'm sure he was none too pleased about how the TPM UE turned-out. Do you think he was told that the fans complained about the UE?

Come to think of it, why does the back of the UE say "album produced by John Williams"? Surely he didn't approve of the edits, much less pay for the project.

The producer credit doesn't mean he is paying. Sony pays.